A GROUP of friends have described their rooftop skating experience as hilarious despite feeling scammed after paying £15 each to skate on an ‘ice rink’ – only to find it was made of plastic tiles with no real ice.
Lupe Baeyens, 29, booked the session at Bussey Rooftop Bar in Peckham after spotting posters promoting the attraction as the ideal festive kick-off.
But when she and her two friends turned up on November 19, they were stunned to discover the surface was plastic rather than frozen water.
Lupe said: “We expected to be able to skate as all the posters were advertising a glide along.
“After we got our skates, we saw there were only two other people there and there were plastic tiles instead of ice.
“We realised then that they wouldn’t have been able to get all the ice onto a high rooftop.
“As soon as you tried to skate, you would get stuck in the plastic and fall forward and there was no way you could glide.”
The social media manager and her friends lasted just ten minutes before giving up.
She added: “We thought it was hilarious but we felt a bit scammed as all the advertising said ice and even the big screen on the rooftop said ice and there was a picture of people skating.
“It was funny because there was no ice to speak of.
“We started walking around it and trying to skate but it was impossible.
“All we could do was walk and admire the view.
“There was nobody there so we had a good laugh and took photos and videos.
“After ten minutes we got bored, handed our skates in and went for a drink in the bar next door.
“It wasn’t the staff’s fault so I didn’t complain to them but I got an email address for head office and asked them for a refund the next day.
“It was a funny memory but we wouldn’t rebook or recommend it to anyone.”
The group were refunded after Lupe emailed her complaint the following day.
The Sun has approached Bussey Rooftop Bar for comment.
This isn’t the first time that disappointed customers have hit out at a festive attraction over advertising that promised a magical experience but delivered something far less impressive.
Last year, families in Glasgow were left furious after attending the “Willy Wonka Experience” event, which had been heavily promoted with AI-generated images of a wondrous chocolate factory filled with enchanting gardens, twinkling lights, and immersive wonders.
Tickets cost £35 each, but attendees arrived to find a sparsely decorated warehouse with minimal props, such as basic tablecloths, cheap mirrors from IKEA, and handfuls of jelly beans and lemonade as the main “treats”.
The event was shut down halfway through the day amid complaints, with police called to the scene as angry parents demanded refunds.
One actor hired to play an Oompa-Loompa described the chaos, saying she felt bad for the kids who arrived excited but left disappointed.
She later said: “I think people need to learn to be a wee bit more kind and realise that people are just human beings and I’m just a normal 30-year-old woman from Glasgow who did a job that is the worst job, acting job, that I’ve ever done in my life.”
